NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2019

We opened our 2019-20 season in September with a majestic Verdi Requiem with the NAC Orchestra and Alexander Shelley.

Please join us on Saturday, November 30th for another grand symphonic choral performance!

Hallelujah!

MESSIAH George Frideric Handel

From the gentle compassion of its opening Comfort Ye and the dance-like exuberance of For Unto Us a Child is Born to the monumental Hallelujah Chorus and the great Amen that ends the story, this music owns a special place in all our hearts. Almost three centuries later we are excited to present that immortal Messiah in a fresh and slightly audacious guise that plays with the idea of role reversal (as Handel himself often did) where the tenor gets to sing Rejoice Greatly and the mezzo gets to sing The Trumpet Shall Sound.

The Ottawa Choral Society returns to the superb acoustic space of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, one of Ottawa’s loveliest historic buildings, to sing Handel’s beloved Messiah on Saturday, November 30th at 7:30 pm. Since its first performance in Dublin in 1742 Messiah has become a keystone of the Western choral tradition. A musical sage we know once said it is “just like sneaking into Heaven”.

For this 21st century Messiah, the soloists have been asked to learn big roles they’ve never sung before and to do that, Maestro Jean-Sébastien Vallée has invited a quartet of superb artists who are eager to rise to the challenge. We are thrilled to welcome back soprano Nathalie Paulin who "radiates sensuous charm" and whose "rich, agile voice possesses great depth and allure" (Chicago Tribune). Ottawa mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta is coming home covered in award-winning glory to sing this very special Messiah, and Quebec-based tenor Antonio Figueroa, who has appeared worldwide on the most famous stages in Paris, Rome, Milan, New York and many others, makes his debut this season with the OCS. We are delighted to invite back the "expressive and quirkily charismatic baritone Geoffrey Sirett, with all of his characteristic artistry" (Schmopera).

The musicians of the Ottawa Music Company join us once again, with their finesse and brilliance, for this exciting new version of Messiah re-voiced and directed by OCS Artistic Director Jean-Sébastien Vallée.

Astor Piazzolla’s “tango nuevo” finds its way into the inner sanctum of the chancel in this setting of the Latin mass that explodes with exuberance and the melancholy at the very soul of the tango

Magnificat —Stephen Chatman Lynlee Wolstencroft, soprano

A multilingual setting of one of the earliest Christian hymns composed for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games (in Latin plus six official languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and German).Nominated for Juno Award 2014

Our Year-End Funding-Raising Campaign

Dear Friends,

Your annual gifts allow us to achieve wonderful things!

The Ottawa Choral Society puts your generous donations to work to deliver profoundly emotional experiences in the concert hall with beloved masterworks that span the centuries, and introduce you to beautiful and relevant new choral music where (by comparison) the ink has barely dried!

We hope you will consider making a donation to the Ottawa Choral Society as you plan your year-end charitable gift list.

Although the choir will soon be celebrating 80 years at the centre of Ottawa‘s cultural life, you may have noticed that we‘ve been growing younger with every season, attracting excellent new singers who are eager to work with our outstanding artistic team headed by Dr.Jean-Sébastien Vallée. Under JS‘s inspiring and exacting direction OCS members spend hundreds of hours in the rehearsal room every season refining our choral technique and digging deep to bring you the artistic excellence that makes you happy that you came to our concerts.

With a little help from our friends, we do a lot with a little:

Present diverse and fascinating concert seasons.

Engage thrilling vocalists and leading instrumentalists.

Foster the choral arts through student memberships, bursaries and scholarships that ensure that cost is never a barrier to making music.

Organize Workshops, Master Classes and Open Houses to grow our skills and attract new choral talent.

Help young Canadian concert artists to launch their professional careers through our nationally-recognized New Discoveries Auditions for Young Artists.